Last Saturday, I decided to go and visit a couple of galleries in Sydney who are having ceramics exhibitions. Went to Kerrie Lowe Gallery in Newtown first to check out Johanna De Maine's exhibition. She made these exquisite bowls and cups with gold inlays. Fantastic, delicate work! While I was at the gallery, I saw a couple of works by a ceramics teacher I had about two years ago. He had a piece of plate and a long vessel. Now, out of curiosity, I asked the lady at the reception for the prices. She told me the plate was $1050 and the vessel was $1200. As we walked out of the gallery, I gleefully whispered to my husband that I have a plate made by my teacher which I bought at the COFA Spring Fair. Guess how much I paid for it? $35! What a freaking bargain! I know my plate is probably not of the same quality and it is smaller in size, but still, it made my day to know that I saved myself $1015. (I hope my teacher doesn't ask for a refund after reading this!) From Newtown, we headed off to Brenda May Gallery in Waterloo to see an exhibition called Lust. My current ceramics teacher is actually part of that exhibition and she made these ceramics LV and Nike bags and boots, and ceramics arms with tattoo sleeves. Amazing stuff! I cannot even begin to comprehend the amount of work that went into the making, and bows down to her technical ceramics skills (I'm so lucky to have her this semester!). If you're interested to see some ceramics work, be sure to check out the two galleries!
0 Comments
First of all, thank you to everyone who came to the opening! Surprisingly, I really didn't expect some of the people who came: my high school friend who I haven't seen in more than 10 years (Facebook really connects!), my ex colleague and her partner and some uni friends.
Funny enough, towards the opening time, I felt a bit over the whole thing. I just wanted it to start and be done with. This exhibition is something I've worked hard on for the past few weeks so on that day, I just felt really exhausted. Have you ever felt like that? The gallery was almost packed to the brim on the opening night. We had a table full of yummy food in one of the bigger rooms and people flocked around it. Someone told me that it was the only time she's had so much food at a gallery opening. The Dean of College of Fine Arts , Ian Howard, opened the event by giving a speech. I thought his speech kind of rambled a bit in the beginning but then he gave out some really good points about the exhibition and suggested that for our next exhibition, we should have a common theme. Something we'll definitely take into account for the future. The opening night was definitely something new for me as it is my very first exhibition. I got a bit annoyed at one point with a group of people who stood too close to my wall pieces and then used my plates plinth as a table to put their drinks on and armrest. I don't know if it was just because they were jeopardising MY art work, but I felt they kind of crossed the etiquette of gallery viewing. Nearly gave me a heart attack too... SBS covered the event and interviewed some of us. They showcased it on the news the next night and it's available online here: http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1568653/Art-expo-showcases-diverse-Australia# Some pictures from the exhibition below... for more pictures, check out (and Like) the AFY Group Facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/AFYGroup The exhibition is now on it's fourth day, it runs until Sunday 17th July 2011 so there's still time if you're interested to go. The address is: Global Gallery, 5 Comber St, Paddington. Opening hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 11am - 6pm and Sunday 12pm-4pm. "Meet the Artists" session: Saturday 16th July 2011 from 2-4pm. I've been going to the gallery after work last night and tonight, trying to get everything sorted with my exhibition. I've had to drill some holes on the wall to install my pieces - took me a while to figure out how to change the drill settings to unscrew. I just stared at the drill, trying hard to remember what the husband taught me about drills... and finally remembered. Phew! (It does pay to kind of half listen to the husband after all)
So Chi Da, the AFY group leader emailed me earlier today saying SBS TV is going to the opening night! They are going to interview us and see the food we're bringing to the exhibition. Because the exhibition is Multi Sensation with artists from 20 countries, each of us is supposed to bring food from our country. I had some snacks that I've already prepared but now that SBS wants to film it, it's just not good enough! Panic, panic, panic! I really can't just bring a plate of banana snacks to represent Indonesian food, can I? Got home quite late from the gallery, called my sister in Perth who gave me some ideas: get some cakes from the Indonesian shops around where I work, get a big plate covered with banana leaves, cut up cakes and layer them on the plate. Sounds easy, except that I'm in Sydney and where do I get banana leaves from? But wait a minute, there is a banana tree at the front of my building! So there I was cutting banana leaves at the front of my building at 10 at night. Fantastic! Now I just have ask someone which side of the leaf I should use... I'm going to the Global Gallery tomorrow to drop off my ceramics and arrange them to be displayed. This Multi Sensation exhibition I'm part of is the first exhibition by AFY - a group of students and alumnis from COFA. There are 32 of us from about 20 countries so the artwork displayed is going to be really diverse. Check out AFY's Facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/AFYGroup
Speaking of displaying, I found this really nifty thing called the Safe 'N Sure Adhesive Plate Hanger to hang my pieces to the wall. I found out about it by chance when I went to the Lane Cove Hobby Ceramics to look for glazes. They didn't have the glazes I wanted but the nice lady who owns the place was nice enough to give me a few tips on ceramics making. I find most people from the ceramics world in Sydney very helpful and they are keen to share information. I wonder if this is the case with other mediums of art? Ending this blog entry on a good note, one of my big plates survived! Yay! It won't be in the exhibition as I don't think it's of that quality yet but this is definitely something I'd like to continue doing. Creating this piece reminded me of the exhibition by Yayoi Kusama I went to a couple of years ago at the Museum of Contemporary Art. When I saw one of her works, I puzzled over her ability to fill in big wide spaces with repeated pattern. Now I understand. Once you start, you just can't stop! |
Irine is a recipient of the Australia Council for the Arts' Artstart Grant (June 2014-2015).
This website has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body. Categories
All
Past postings
March 2016
|